Fewer Quinn job losses expected

IT’S “BUSINESS as usual” at Quinn Insurance, with redundancy numbers now likely to be lower than earlier anticipated, the High Court heard yesterday.

In a report submitted to the court, the insurer’s administrators said they continued to retain merchant bankers to advise on any prospective sale of the company.

Quinn Insurance has been in administration since March, when the Financial Regulator discovered loan guarantees that affected the solvency of the group. The administrators’ latest report suggests the company will now have 800 redundancies, rather than the 900 originally envisaged. Some 75 jobs had been retained at Quinn’s Enniskillen office, the court heard.

Bernard Dunleavy, for administrators Michael McAteer and Paul McCann of Grant Thornton, said they were keen to underline it was business as usual, and their goal was to return the insurer to a sound commercial footing.

This was “going well”, and they had been able to revisit their views on required redundancies.

Mr Dunleavy said merchant bankers Macquarie Capital Europe had been retained to advise the administrators on any prospective sale of the insurance group. This work was proceeding.

The judge approved payments to the end of September next of fees sought by the administrators and their lawyers, which were subject to a peer review which found them “fair and reasonable”.

The administrators previously secured approval of the costs of some €565,000 for their work between March 30th and April 30th, 2010, and liberty to invoice the company monthly up to the end of July for fees for sums not exceeding €1.8 million.

The court also permitted them to pay their solicitors, MacCann Fitzgerald, some €120,000 for work between March 30th and April 30th last, and further legal costs incurred since then. They previously paid Hume Brophy PR Consultants some €50,000 for work between March 30th and April 30th last, plus €10,000 per month for any work after that.